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The Dis-United Bermuda Party?

Well, I was just skimming through the Saturday RG, and unusually for me I decided to read the Bda Shorts section. This section usually covers some trivial matters, but occassionally it has something of interest in it, and today it definitely had a bit of a gem; although I can certainly see how it could be regarded as trivial.

– Former UBP Leader Mr. Dunkley is ‘tipped’ to become the Opposition Senate Leader.
– Ms. Spence-Farmer, Mr. Wayne Scott, Mr. Alvin Wilson and Mr. Charlie Swan are names thought to be being considered for Opposition Senators.
– Former UBP Leader Mr. Furbert has declined a Shadow Cabinet position ‘citing business committments.’
– Former UBP Deputy Leader Ms. Pamplin-Gordon has apparently declined a Shadow Cabinet position also, dropping her Shadow Finance post.
– Mr. Bob Richards has taken over the Finance post.
– Mr. Moniz has declined a Shadow Cabinet position.

Perhaps Mr. Furbert’s, Mr. Moniz’s and Ms. Pamplin-Gordon do legitimately have business committments that otherwise prevent them taking on these Shadow Cabinet positions, but these do lead to some lingering questions on the current state of the UBP.

Firstly, as Ms. Pamplin-Gordon had challenged for the Deputy Leader position earlier its highly suspect that suddenly she appears to have dropped out of the Shadow Cabinet. True, the way its worded she may still be in the Shadow Cabinet, but in a different post, but one really doesn’t get that feeling from this snippet of an article.

In general I kind of roll my eyes at those MPs who cite ‘business committments’ for not being willing to take on a Shadow Cabinet position. Just like Ms. Pamplin-Gordons’ faux pas where she said she didn’t have time to be Leader, one feels that if you’re willing to serve your country as an MP, one would assume you are aware of the committments that would entail, and this ‘business committments’ come across more as a cop-out than anything else. And yes, I fully support the need for full-time MPs within the current parliamentary system; as the Biblical maxim goes, you can’t serve both God and Mammon.

Mr. Richards position as Shadow Finance Minister puts him in a good place to launch future challenges to the leadership though, but I really haven’t been too impressed with his financial criticism last year, though he often did a better job than Ms. Pamplin-Gordon in this area I admit.

Ultimately, if these reports come to be true, to me it comes across as further evidence of some really big internal problems within the UBP. Thoughts?